Archive for January, 2013

Hi friends! How were your holidays? We are still finding bits of Christmas wrapping paper in weird places around the house, recovering from all the over-eating, and trying to settle back into a work schedule after a gloriously long break from computers and phone-calls and to-do lists. It’s not an easy transition to make, hence here I am typing a blog post instead of facing that ugly mountain of work! Thanks for the distraction! I can always count on you guys to have my back, that’s why I love ya.

If you follow me here and here, you saw that we ended up staying home for Christmas instead of going to our families’ houses because of a badly-timed broken propane boiler. My family swooped in and saved the day by bringing their Christmas meal and all the merriment to us! We ate well, played games and exchanged gifts and it was so nice to not have to drive anywhere. I could get used to this broken-boiler-business, actually. It might just mysteriously break every year from now on..

But, sadly the broken boiler meant we missed out on spending very much time with Mike’s side of the family, so we’re headed down to them in MN this weekend to make up for lost time and to bite our nails through the first NFL Playoff game between the Packers (yaaaaay!) and the Vikings (boooo!) all together. Mike and I will be the only Packer fans in the room, so please pray for us.

Last night, we celebrated the last evening of 2012 and the dawn of 2013 at a friend’s house down the road. It was about zero degrees (F) once the sun went down, but that didn’t stop a group of about eight of us from x-country skiing around their property. We wound through tall pine woods and over farm fields and in-between 100-year-old apple trees. The stars and moon were out in full force, lighting our way and giving us an excuse to occasionally stop and catch our breath. The sky was so massive and blanketing. We looked like little black ants under its cover.

Back at the house there was a sauna heating up, chili on the stove and gallons of clementine-rosemary cocktails waiting for us. Nothing feels better than a warm cabin and amazing food and some booze after a good ski. Conversations and laughter swelled right up until 11:59 when someone shouted “Oh Shit! It’s almost midnight!” and we all quickly refilled our glasses and scooted next to the person we would kiss.

There’s a lot on the brink for our group of friends in 2013. One couple is moving away for a job opportunity (the kind you move away for, because it’s that good.) One couple is having a baby. One couple is getting married. And a whole slew of us are soldering on with various irons in the fire. We are all so blessed to have each other for support, encouragement and, when needed, distraction. The same person I can debate politics with or confide struggles to is the same person I can crack open a PBR with and say “that’s what she said” to. Looking around the room last night I thought about how friends like this are so incredibly priceless and necessary and rare and beautiful, and how I feel like the luckiest person alive to have them.

So far so good, 2013. So far so good.

I’ve gotta get to work here, so I’ll leave you with a list of things you may have missed recently if you don’t keep up with me on Instagram or Twitter. Happy New Year!!

1. We butchered our turkeys. “Thanksgiving” the tom was 37 lbs, dressed! Photo from his last day right here, and photo of the end result right here.

5. Mike welded a tree stand for our funny-shaped Christmas tree. It even holds water! We might be on to something. Should we start an Etsy shop? LOL! P.S. Benefit of trees/tree-stands like this is that they take up very little floor-space.

My name is Tonia. I live on a rural homestead in Northern Wisconsin with my husband and dog and write about living life with my hands in the dirt.